In 2008, a number of free software developers and activists gathered
at the FSF to attempt to answer the question “What should software
freedom look like on the participatory web?” Their answer, the
Franklin Street Statement has lead to the development of
autonomo.us community, and free software projects including
Identi.ca and Libre.fm.

Identi.ca and Libre.fm address the need for micro-blogging and music
sharing services and software that respect users’ freedom and
autonomy.

GNU MediaGoblin emerges from this milieu to create a platform for us to share
photos, video and other media in an environment that respects our freedom and
independence. In the future MediaGoblin will provide tools to facilitate
collaboration on media projects.

The Internet is designed—and works best—as a complex and endlessly
resilient network. When key services and media outlets are
concentrated in centralized platforms, the network becomes less useful
and increasingly fragile. As always, the proprietary nature of these
systems, hinders users ability to develop, extend, and understand
their software; however, in the case of network services it also means
that users must forfeit control of their data to the service
providers.

Therefore, we believe that network services must be federated to avoid
centralization and that everyone ought to have control over their
data. In support of this, we’ve decided to help build the tools to
make these kinds of services possible. We hope you’ll join us, both
as users and as contributors.

We are free software activists and folks who have worked on a variety
of other projects including: Libre.fm, GNU Social, Status.net, Miro,
Miro Community, and OpenHatch among others. We’re programmers,
musicians, writers, and painters. We’re friendly and dedicated to
software and network freedom.